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h i g h l i g h t s
The influence of curing conditions on the sorptivity, electric flux and carbonation depth were investigated.
Longer curing time, higher humidity and appropriate temperature was helpful to improve the impermeability of concrete.
The relationship between water absorption and other permeability was discussed.
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The influence of mineral admixtures and curing conditions on the permeability of concrete with high vol-
Received 18 January 2017 ume mineral admixtures is investigated. Fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) are
Received in revised form 6 January 2018 used to replace 50% cement, the water absorption, capillary water absorption, sorptivity coefficient, elec-
Accepted 31 January 2018
tric flux and carbonation depth of concrete with mineral admixtures are tested under different curing
conditions, such as the curing time, curing humidity and curing temperature. The test results show that
the water absorption, capillary water absorption, sorptivity coefficient, electric flux and carbonation
Keywords:
depth of concrete decrease with the longer standard curing time, higher curing humidity and appropriate
Curing conditions
Carbonation depth
curing temperature, and decrease with the increasing of GGBFS content. It is also shown that the perme-
Capillary water absorption ability of concrete with high volume mineral admixtures is very sensitive to the curing conditions.
Electric flux Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Mineral admixture
Water absorption
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.01.190
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
360 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
of concrete, the results shown that the proper curing methods is 50% of the mass of binders, but the content of fly ash and GGBFS
could effectively increase the strength, reduce the central temper- is changed. The mix proportions and compressive strength are
ature due to hydration heat and the early shrinkage strain and shown in Table 2.
improve the chloride impermeability, and longer wet curing dura-
tion was essential to achieve higher strength, durability and corro- 2.3. Experimental methods
sion resistance characteristics, especially for slag cement concrete.
The results of Sisomphon et al. [15] show the significance of 7 days 2.3.1. Water absorption
curing period on carbonation resistance of the mixtures, and the Water absorption measurements carry out according to GB/T
depths of carbonation of blast-furnace slag cement with or without 9966 [17]. The specimens with dimensions of 100 100100
fly ash are dramatically reduced by extending the curing period mm are placed in the oven with the temperature of 110 ± 5 °C
from 3 days to 7 days. for 48 hours (short for h), and the mass of the test specimen is
When cement is replaced by 50% mineral admixtures, the cur- m0 after cooling to room temperature, and then the specimen is
ing conditions have a greater impact on the quality of concrete, immersed in water for 3d, and the mass of the specimen with
especially the surface quality. Water absorption is used to deter- the saturated surface dry state is weighed as m1. Then the water
mine the amount of water absorbed under specified conditions absorption a can be calculated as following:
which indicates the degree of porosity of a material [16], and the
m1 m0
capillary water absorption, chloride ion penetration and carbona- a¼ 100% ð1Þ
m0
tion of concrete are more or less related to the open pores on the
concrete surface. This paper mainly studies the effect of the curing
time, curing humidity and curing temperature on the permeability 2.3.2. Capillary water absorption
of concrete with high volume mineral admixtures, and the rela- Capillary water absorption (sorptivity) measurements carry out
tionship between the water absorption and other properties of according to ASTM C 1585 [18]. For this test, three specimens hav-
concrete is analyzed. ing dimensions of U10050 mm are employed. At first, the speci-
mens are put into oven at 110 ± 5 °C until a constant weight and
2. Experimental programs
2.1. Materials
The cement (C) used is 42.5 ordinary Portland cement, its den-
sity is 3.15 g/cm3, its specific surface area is 350 m2/kg, and 28d
compressive strength is 48.6 MPa. Fly ash (FA) is class Ⅱ fly ash,
its specific surface area is 380 m2/kg, and its density is 2.41 g/
cm3. The specific surface area of ground granulated blast furnace
slag (GGBFS) is 440 m2/kg, and its density is 2.87 g/cm3. The chem-
ical compositions of binders are shown in Table 1. The fine aggre-
gate is river sand, and its fineness modulus is 2.7. The coarse
aggregate with nominal maximum size of 15 mm is limestone
gravel, and its crushing value is 8.0%. A polycarboxylate superplas-
ticizer (SP) is used in the mixes and its water reduction rate is 30%.
Table 1
Chemical composition of binders (%).
Material Al2O3 SiO2 Fe2O3 TiO2 CaO MgO Na2O K2O LOI
Cement 4.3 21.1 2.5 0.1 65.9 1.5 0 0.5 3.2
Fly ash 26.9 55.2 5.6 1.7 2.7 1.0 0.9 2.4 2.9
GGBFS 15.0 31.0 0.3 0.9 37.4 9.4 0 0.5 4.0
Table 2
Mix proportion and compressive strength of concrete (kg/m3).
Fig. 3. Influence of curing time on sorptivity coefficient of concrete. Fig. 4. Influence of standard curing time on electric flux of concrete.
362 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
then place into a desiccator during 24 h. In order to avoid evapora- K is calculated from the slop of the linear relation between i and
pffiffi
tion and achieve uniaxial water flow, four sides of the samples are t.
sealed with paraffin wax and the other opposite faces are released
open. The initial weights of the specimens are measured as 0.01 g. 2.3.3. Rapid chloride permeability
Then, the surface of the specimen exposes to water at about 4–5 The permeability of concrete to chloride ions is evaluated based
mm by putting it in a salver to provide water access to the inflow on the charge passed as measured in the RCPT in accordance with
surface. The specimens are weighted before and after submerging the procedures described in ASTM C1202 [19]. Three specimens of
for 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 240, 300, 360, 420, 480, 540, 600 100 mm in diameter and 50 mm in thickness conditioned accord-
and 1440 min, then the sorptivity coefficient K can be calculated ing to the standards are subjected to 60 V potential for 6 h. The
by the following formula: total charge passed through the concrete specimens is determined
and used to evaluate the chloride ion permeability of each concrete
DW pffiffi mixture.
i¼ ¼K t ð2Þ
Aqw
2.3.4. Carbonation
where i-Specific water absorption, mm; 4W-Cumulative water In accordance with Chinese standard GB/T 50082 [20], when
absorbing quality at various times, g; A-the cross section of speci- concrete specimens with dimensions of 100 100100 mm finish
men that is in contact with water, mm2; qw-Water density, 1 g/ curing at 28d, they are exposed to accelerated carbonation appara-
cm3; K-Sorptivity coefficient, mm/min0.5; t-Water absorption time, tus with carbon dioxide gas concentration at 20 ± 3%, temperature
min. at 20 ± 2 °C and RH at 70 ± 5% for 3d, 7d, 14 d and 28 d respectively.
To determine the soptivity coefficient, the specific water Measurement of carbonation depth is according to the procedures
pffiffi
absorption i is plotted against the square root of time ( t), then, in Chinese standard GB/T 50082 [20].
When the influence of the curing time is studied, four different 3.1. Influence of curing time
curing regimes are applied to the specimens before the tests: (i)
28d air curing, (ii) an initial standard curing for 3d, further 25d 3.1.1. Water absorption
air curing, (iii) an initial standard curing for 7d, further 21d air cur- The influence of the curing time on the water absorption of con-
ing, and (iv) 28d standard curing. For air curing, the average tem- crete is shown in Fig. 1. The water absorption of concrete decreases
perature is about 30 °C, and the average relative humidity is with the increasing of standard curing time, wet curing is benefi-
about 80%. For standard curing, the temperature is 20 ± 2 °C, and cial to the hydration of cement and mineral admixtures [7–9,21].
the relative humidity is more than 95%. Air curing is high temperature and dry environment, the free water
When the influence of the curing humidity is studied, three dif- in concrete is easy to be evaporated, which results in a porous sur-
ferent curing regimes are applied to the specimens before the face of concrete. When the standard curing time is 7d or 28d, the
tests: (i) 28d air curing (the average temperature is about 20 °C, hydration of cement and GGBFS is adequate, and the hydration
and the average relative humidity is about 70%), (ii) 28d dry curing products will fill in the pores of concrete, which results in the
(the temperature is 20 °C, and the relative humidity is 60%), and reduction of the porosity and water absorption of concrete. The
(iii) 28d humidity curing (the temperature is 20 °C, and the relative concrete with high volume mineral admixtures, especially high
humidity is 90%). volume fly ash is more vulnerable to dry curing conditions than
When the influence of the curing temperature is studied, three ordinary concrete [7]. The water absorption of concrete decreases
different curing regimes are applied to the specimens for 24 h: (i) with the increasing of GGBFS content, the water absorption of
air curing, (ii) film-covered curing at 20 °C, and (iii) film-covered FA50 is the maximum and that of S50 is the minimum. Regardless
curing at 35 °C. For air curing, the average temperature is about of glass content and composition, fly ash in cement concrete cured
20 °C, and the average relative humidity is about 80%. All speci- at 20 °C does not react until 7 days [22], GGBFS has higher hydra-
mens are air cured to 28d after demoulding. tion activity, so the water absorption of concrete decreases with
the increase of GGBFS content.
Fig. 6. Relationship between water absorption and sorptivity coefficient. Fig. 8. Relationship between water absorption and 28d carbonation depth.
Fig. 7. Relationship between water absorption and electric flux. Fig. 9. Influence of curing humility on water absorption of concrete.
364 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
3.1.2. Capillary water absorption concrete. With the extension of standard curing time, the speci-
Sorptivity is an easily measurable material property that fea- fic water absorption of concrete decreases, but the reduction
tures the tendency of a porous material to absorb and transmit extent of specific water absorption decreases. Thus the early
water through the capillary, and the sorptivity test indirectly indi- standard curing is very important for concrete with high
cates the void volume and supports the water retention test [23]. volume mineral admixtures, and has important influence on
The influence of the curing time on the specific water absorption the hydration of binders and micro-pores of concrete, and espe-
of concrete is shown in Fig. 2. The specific water absorption of con- cially the influence on the pore structure of concrete surface is
crete increases with the absorbing time, but the later growth very obvious.
decreases gradually. The results obtained by Martys et al. [24] The specific water absorption of concrete decrease with GGBFS
show that the capillary absorption of water in concrete exhibits content, and that of FA50 is the maximum. The capillary water
complex time dependence, the reason for the reduction of growth absorption of all concretes without standard curing is higher, and
of capillary water absorption during the later period is meeting that of concrete with different content of fly ash and GGBFS has
greater resistance from the smaller gel pores. less difference, which means that the hydration degree of GGBFS
As seen from Fig. 2, the specific water absorption of concrete and fly ash is low under the condition of air curing, and the
decreases with the curing time at the same absorbing time. The improvement for concrete pore structure is less. The initial curing
specific water absorption of concrete without standard curing is condition has significant effect on the transport properties, and the
higher than that with standard curing, even 3d standard curing concrete with mineral admixtures will perform extremely well
can significantly reduce the specific water absorption of when initially cured in wet conditions [25].
The sorptivity coefficient K can reflect the surface characteris- The carbonation depth of concrete decreases with the increas-
tics of the concrete, and is determined by the porosity and pore ing of GGBFS content, F50 has the worst carbonation resistance,
size of concrete surface. As seen from Fig. 3. The sorptivity coeffi- and S50 has the best carbonation resistance. As known, content
cient decreases with the increasing of the standard curing time of calcium hydroxide and carbon dioxide penetration rate are the
and the content of GGBFS. Longer time standard curing can two key factors controlling concrete carbonation rate [32]. GGBFS
improve the hydration degree of cement and mineral admixtures, is generally much more active than fly ash, therefore, concrete with
and improve the density of concrete. The reduction of the porosity GGBFS having lower calcium hydroxide content and denser matrix
of concrete can result in the reduction of the sorptivity coefficient. shows a better carbonation resistance than concrete with fly ash.
In addition, the incorporation of GGBFS can change the pore struc- The results obtained by Gonen et al. [33] show that the depth of
ture of concrete, and reduce the porosity of concrete. carbonation in concrete mixtures containing fly ash is slightly
higher than that of concrete without fly ash, and the incorporation
3.1.3. Electric flux of 15–40% fly ash exhibits higher rate of carbonation.
The influence of the standard curing time on the electric flux of
concrete is shown in Fig. 4. The electric flux of the concrete 3.1.5. Relationship between the permeability of concrete
decreases with the increasing of standard curing time and that of The water absorption of concrete reflects the open porosity of
concrete with 7d and 28d standard curing is similar, which means concrete, and the sorptivity coefficient, electric flux and carbona-
that the initial curing is very important to improve the density of tion depth of concrete are more or less relevant to the open pores,
concrete, and 7d wet curing is essential for the permeability of con- so there is a relationship between the water absorption and these
crete. When GGBFS is added in the mix, the electric flux of concrete properties of concrete.
is significantly reduced, and when the content of GGBFS is more As seen from Fig. 6, the sorptivity coefficient of concrete
than 20%, the electric flux of concrete changes less. Usually chlo- increases with the increase of the water absorption. The water
rides penetrate in concrete by diffusion along water paths or open absorption reflects the open porosity of the whole specimen, while
pores [26]. The formation of a less porous, denser microstructure
and a discontinuous pore system becomes critical for reduced chlo-
ride ion permeability, and the pozzolanic reactions seem to be able
to develop a discontinuous pore system more readily [27]. In addi-
tion, the chloride ion penetration depends on the chloride binding
capacity of the constituent materials. Some of these chlorides can
react with the cement compounds, mainly C3A, forming stable
chlorocomplexes, and the excess of chloride is free and leads to
the initiation of the corrosion process [26]. The results obtained
by Uysal et al. [27] show that the concrete incorporating more
fly ash and GGBFS content (with high amounts of alumina con-
tents) exhibits a much better resistance to chloride ion penetra-
tion, and the alumina content has a significant influence on the
total charge of the concrete. It has generally been accepted that
GGBFS has good the chloride binding capacity [28,29], but the
results obtained by Thomas et al. [30] show that no clear relation-
ship exists between the chloride binding capacity and the total cal-
cium or alumina content of fly ash, and different fly ash shows
different chlorine binding capacity, which is probably the reason
that the electric flux decreases significantly with the GGBFS
content.
3.1.4. Carbonation Fig. 11. influence of curing humidity on sorptivity coefficient of concrete.
The influence of standard the curing time on the carbonation
depth of concrete is shown in Fig. 5. The carbonation depth of con-
crete increases with the increasing of the carbonation time, the
early growth is large, and the late growth is small. At the initial
stage of carbonation, CO2 is easy to penetrate into the pores of con-
crete, and reacts with the alkaline hydration products in concrete,
which reduces the alkalinity of concrete. The formation of CaCO3
resulted from the reaction between CO2 and the alkaline hydration
products can fill in the pores of surface concrete, and slow down
the penetration rate of CO2, so the later carbonation rate decreases.
As seen from Fig. 5, the carbonation depth of concrete with the
air curing at the same carbonization time is similar, and the car-
bonation depth of concrete decreases with the increasing of stan-
dard time. When the concrete after demoulding is directly cured
in the air, the water loss rate of surface concrete is faster, so the
open pores on surface concrete are more. The early curing of con-
crete with mineral admixture is very important [15,31], 7d stan-
dard curing can significantly improve the carbonation resistance
of concrete, therefore, it is necessary to extend the early wet curing
time of concrete with mineral admixtures in order to improve its
carbonation resistance. Fig. 12. Influence of curing humidity on electric flux of concrete.
366 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
Fig. 14. Relationship between water absorption and sorptivity coefficient. Fig. 15. Relationship between water absorption and electric flux.
B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371 367
the sorptivity coefficient reflects the water absorption capacity of humility is favorable to the development of the porous structure.
the open pores on the surface concrete contacting with water by Before exposing the concrete to the accelerated carbonation test,
the capillary action, and is related to the pore characteristics. the longer initial curing period results in lower carbonation depth,
Under the condition of air curing, this relationship is not obvious, and the effect is more marked with moist curing [37].
which may be related to the connected pores resulted from the It can also be seen from Fig. 13, the carbonation rate of concrete
transformation and evaporation of water on the surface of before 7d is significantly higher than that after 7d. When the cur-
concrete. ing humidity is the same, the carbonation depth of concrete is
RCPT is useful to determine the relative permeability of con- reduced with the increase of the GGBFS content. When the content
crete in spite of questions concerning its theoretical relevance of GGBFS is more than 30%, the carbonation depth is obviously
[34–36], and the chloride permeability of concrete depends on lower than that of the GGBFS content less than 30%. When the min-
the pore structure. As seen from Fig. 7, the electric flux of concrete eral admixtures are used to replace cement, the carbonation resis-
increases with the increase of the water absorption. Even if the tance of concrete with fly ash and GGBFS is better than that only
concrete single mixed fly ash has lower water absorption, but with fly ash.
has higher electric flux, which should be related to different chlo-
ride binding capacity of fly ash and GGBFS.
3.2.5. Relationship between the permeability of concrete
As seen from Fig. 8, the carbonation depth of concrete increases
As seen from Fig. 14, the sorptivity coefficient of concrete
with the increase of the water absorption. The air curing concrete
increases with the increase of the water absorption, and there is
has highest water absorption and carbonation depth, while 28d
a linear relationship. As seen from Fig. 15, the electric flux of con-
standard curing concrete has the lowest. Although the carbonation
crete increases with the increase of the water absorption, high
is the penetration of gas into concrete and the carbonation depth is
GGBFS content and high humidity is conducive to reduce the water
also related to carbonation reaction, but the carbonation depth of
absorption and the electric flux of the concrete. As seen from
concrete is also closely related to the open pores of concrete.
Fig. 16, the carbonation depth of concrete increases with the
increase of the water absorption. The carbonation depth and water
3.2. Influence of curing humidity
3.2.4. Carbonation
The influence of the curing humidity on the carbonation depth
of concrete is shown Fig. 13. The carbonation depth of concrete
decreases with the increase of the curing humidity, high curing Fig. 17. Influence of curing temperature on water absorption of concrete.
368 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
absorption of concrete are not only related to the curing humidity, absorption of concrete increases with the increasing of the curing
but also to the content of GGBFS and fly ash in concrete. temperature and that is attributed to the increase of porosity and
microcracks caused by early high temperature curing, especially
3.3. Curing temperature the increase of open pores on surface concrete.
It can be seen from the Fig. 18, the specific water absorption of
3.3.1. Water absorption concrete decreases with the increasing of GGBFS content, the con-
The influence of the curing temperature on the water absorp- tent of fly ash in concrete is higher, and the specific water absorp-
tion of concrete is shown in Fig. 17. The water absorption of con- tion of concrete is higher. Higher curing temperature is beneficial
crete with curing temperature of 20 °C is lower than that of 35 to the hydration of mineral admixtures, and GGBFS can produce
°C. Higher treatment temperature can result in a less uniform dis- more hydration products than fly ash.
tribution of hydration products due to the rapid initial hydration The influence of the curing temperature on the sorptivity coef-
[38]. The water absorption of concrete decreases with the increas- ficient of concrete is shown in Fig. 19. The sorptivity coefficient of
ing of GGBFS content and that is attributed to the activity different concrete increases with the increasing of the curing temperature,
between fly ash and GGBFS. high temperature curing concretes are more porous as indicated
by the much higher sorptivity coefficient compared with standard
3.3.2. Capillary water absorption curing concretes [39]. Although the fast hydration due to temper-
The influence of the curing temperature on the specific water atures increases at the beginning, it appears that capillary cracks
absorption of concrete is shown in Fig. 18. The specific water occur and the sorptivity coefficient increases during fast hydration
[13]. When the curing temperature is the same, the sorptivity coef- concrete cured at 35 °C is greater than that cured at 20 °C or air
ficient of concrete is reduced with the increase of the GGBFS con- curing. Because the activity of GGBFS is higher than that of fly
tent. At the same time, the sorptivity coefficient of concrete with ash, under the same curing condition, its hydration degree is
mineral admixtures increases with the increase of the curing tem- higher [13,21]. The carbonation depth of concrete decreases with
perature. This situation can be explained by the pozzolanic prop- the increasing of GGBFS content and that is attributed to the activ-
erty of GGBFS [13]. ity different between fly ash and GGBFS.
4. Conclusions
Fig. 22. Relationship between water absorption and sorptivity coefficient. Fig. 23. Relationship between water absorption and electric flux.
B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371 371